3rd Transnational meeting

3rd TRANSNATIONAL MEETING IN SPAIN: 27-29 May, 2019

Quoting Mark Prensky, as digital immigrants and digital natives we have learned the good and the bad of using digital technology and found a common ground to use it effectively and responsibly. That is precisely what we have done during these two years of project work. All the partners have developed better knowledge and a more detailed understanding of the elements of digital citizenship by sharing and learning from the practices undertaken in each other’s countries.

One more time, a network or rather, a community of students, teachers, school staff, parents and other collaborators have put in a joint effort and cooperated to respond to the needs that our communities and society demand in terms of education and digital citizenship.

The last project meeting held in Almendralejo revolved around evaluating the two-year project. We started with a guided tour of the school for our ten teachers coming from the partner countries. After the renovation works thathad taken part the previous year it made sense that we showed the school around with new creative spaces designed for the students and displays of different initiatives and projects carried out during the year. Many of these things found inspiration in the experiences lived during the student exchanges and travels. Right after that, the Principal welcomed the partners and transmitted a message and a wish: “We would like this project meeting not to be just an end but a see you later, which was responded with a graphic nod by all the participants showing their will to cooperate.

During the meeting in Almendralejo the partners discussed the state of the project seeking for ways to better disseminate the project outcomes and present them in a way that they can be transferred to other schools and professionals that wish to carry out this type of experiences. We summarized the activities compiling all the materials, workshops, lessons and resources used and reviewed all that had been done. Some improvements were suggested in order to make it easier for potential users to find the information they might be looking for. Also the control of the budget related to each partner school, concrete results and management issues were discussed and clarified.

In the evening programme we had the chance to visit “Huerta Montero”, the archeological site in Almendralejo from the Copper Age that shows us how our ancestors used sacred spaces oriented to Midwinter Solstice for spiritual regeneration. It was a precious memorial of megalithic culture.

On Tuesday, some of the partner teachers had the opportunity to observe lessons of Technology, Physics, French and History in line with their preferences. In the meantime the coordinators took part in an interesting school radio programme which was broadcast online for all the schools. The Spanish coordinator moderated the programme and the other coordinating teachers were interviewed by some students and shared their thoughts about the project, their education systems and their culture.

After a little coffee break, we moved forward to round off the final report, which had been partly completed by all the coordinators beforehand. We had a final check on the selection of the participants and how indirect beneficiaries had been involved. We went over evaluation aspects about the success of the project and its impact on the students, families, schools, teachers and other organizations and discussed further possibilities of dissemination activities for sustainability after the end of the project.

The three days of the meeting ended with a general satisfaction of the partners about the work done during these two years, expressing a good feeling about the collaboration between the partners and the quality of the project outcomes, finishing the meeting with the positive conclusion that we are in line with the expected results.

After two years of project work, for some of the partners seven years in a row in different projects, we feel that we are still willing to seek for ways of cooperation in the future as a lot of new practices, resources and materials have been created. We are confident that the joint effort and creations will make the project sustainable and future collaboration will occur as there are strong bonds among the partner schools and new teachers have joined in.

Javier Cerrato, project coordinator

Class observation

We had the chance to organize a few class observations with our partners. Although it seems that it is an opportunity for the guests, we took advantage of the class observation as hosting European teachers in our lessons makes a difference and means extra motivation for Spanish students and teachers.

Therefore, on Monday Jernej, the Slovenian Physics teacher, visited the 4th grade Technology class. Besides, Zita, the Hungarian teacher, decided to come with him in order to take photos. The students tried to explain to them the process of designing and building a low cost robot based on Arduino. Jernej knows this technology and his students use it, so he could understand the activity thoroughly. All of the Spanish students, bilingual and non-bilingual, used English all the time.

On Tuesday, Zita came to the 2nd grade English lesson. We were interested in showing them how to manage an exercise with the students involved with her students in the eTwinning Project. So, our students started to complete a Padlet board to compare the different schools working in the ‘The way we are, the way we learn’ project. Although her pupils have not had time to complete the Padlet exercise, we think that it was a useful training for all of us, and we are interested in doing this kind of thing next year. In addition, other observation lessons were organized by other colleagues for teachers of French and Physics.

Juan Fernández de Vega

Visit to Seville

One of my contributions in the third transnational meeting in the safe.etizens@eu project was to arrange the trip to Seville and travel with the partners there on May 29. We had the chance to have a city tour around Santa Cruz old quarter and visit the Alcázar, one of the jewels of Seville.

I had already got to know the teachers thanks to my participation in other activities of the project such as the transnational meeting in Hungary (in May 2018) and the students’ exchange in Italy (in February, 2019). Despite the short time that transnational meetings last, the relationship was relaxed and kind and has strengthened our friendship.

Although I often go to Seville, the experience of this trip has been unique because through the partner teachers, I also felt the city in a different and rewarding way because we had time to exchange experiences and we often talked about practices in our classes that serve to share thoughts and views that enhance our teaching practice and learn from one another.

Reyes Mateos